government accountability office

On Monday, The New York Times ran a damning story detailing how the nation’s drug makers are hiking their prices ahead of the reform laws winding their way through Congress. The very next day, some powerful House Democrats called for a closer look, asking the Government Accountability Office to examine the drug industry to verify [...]

Despite a 53 percent in food aid funding over the last two years, the amount of food delivered to address emergencies abroad fell 5 percent over the same span, the non-partisan Government Accountability Office reported Wednesday. GAO is citing as a culprit a U.S. law requiring that almost all international food aid be grown domestically [...]

Just in time to throw another twist into the health reform debate, the Government Accountability Office reported today that Medicaid is paying to fill prescriptions for the dead.
After studying Medicaid claims in five states — California, New York, North Carolina, Illinois and Texas — GAO found more than 1,800 cases, between fiscal years 2006 and [...]

Medicare is often described as a fee-for-service program, meaning exactly what it sounds like: physicians and hospitals bill the government for each individual service they provide to Medicare beneficiaries, and Washington writes them a check in return. The more services rendered, the more providers are paid — a system that’s fine when those services are [...]

Another day, another damning federal report regarding the ease with which potential criminals can purchase guns in America.
Just days after issuing findings that thousands of guns are being funneled illegally into Mexico, the Government Accountability Office reported that, in the last five years, folks known to be on the FBI’s terrorist watch list have tried [...]

Last week’s Government Accountability Office report on the trafficking of U.S. guns to Mexico has inspired quite a backlash from gun enthusiasts who contend it’s “being deliberately misinterpreted by gun prohibitionists to push a gun ban agenda,” according to one voice representative of the outcry.
The report found that 87 percent of guns seized by Mexican [...]

It can’t explain every aspect of Taliban resilience, of course — insurgencies survive on passive or active popular support, whether freely given or coerced — but C.J. Chivers of The New York Times notices something troubling:
Of 30 rifle magazines recently taken from insurgents’ corpses, at least 17 contained cartridges, or rounds, identical to ammunition the [...]

Apparently not convinced that the Wall Street bailout law goes far enough to ensure the money is well spent, Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), both leaders on the Senate Finance Committee, introduced legislation today that would force companies accepting taxpayer money under the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) to open their books [...]

Want to lower your taxes and maybe get a bailout?
Incorporate.
The Government Accountability Office released a report today indicating that 83 of the 100 largest U.S. corporations — including many that are benefiting from Washington’s many taxpayer-funded bailouts — operate subsidiaries in countries known to be tax havens. Additionally, 63 of the 100 largest publicly-traded federal [...]

Yesterday, President-elect Barack Obama went after subsidies to wealthy farmers as “a prime example” of the abusive federal spending he hopes to rein in from his perch in the White House. He forgot to mention that, as a senator, he endorsed the bill in May, even as critics pointed out that the eligibility rules allow [...]